Pat Rent-a-Car

My summer concert tour de force continued this weekend with two shows at the Bank of America Pavilion.

Friday night was Nickel Creek, who played for over two hours straight, and had Fiona Apple join them for about 30% of the show. I have seen them three times now, and they are a tough band to watch live. Many of their songs are instrumental, or have very quiet vocals, and generally the audience does not simply sit there and listen. Rather, they talk to their friends. So, every Nickel Creek show I have attended has featured a dull mutter from the crowd during the entire show, which I find disrespectful on the concert-goers parts.

Last night was much different, and much louder. Pat Benatar played, now giving equal billing to her husband/guitarist/collaborator Neil Giraldo. Pat has not had a hit in the US in 19 years, and the bulk of her hits were from 1979-1983, so it's safe to say this was a nostalgia show.

And the audience reflected that! Lots of bedazzled jeans, big stomachs, frosted hair, and a lady in leopard print spandex pants who hit on Ryan twice.

In looking at her hits online, it's kind of surprising she did not sing "Fire and Ice" and "You Better Run" during her set. Everything else was pretty standard. Technically, she had 15 US Top 40 hits, but the real mystery was twofold. First does she close with "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," "Heartbreaker," or "Love Is A Battlefield" (Heartbreaker closed the show, Battlefield closed the encore). Second, can she still hit the high notes in Heartbreaker (answer=no...but she had quite a range and powerful voice nonetheless).

Pat miscellany:

I had an old co-worker who would always refer to Pat as "Pat Rent-a-Car," which I found a bit amusing.

Last season during kickball, our most fun post-game celebration was with a team that we dubbed "the nicest team ever," because, well, they were. We went out drinking with them at some dive in Somerville after the game, and we were able to convince the DJ to play "Love Is A Battlefield," AND a condition of that song being played was that members of our team (to remain nameless) were to do the Pat Benatar boob dance that she does at the end of the video. It was probably a lot funnier after copious amounts of beer.